The China Diet: Week 3

 

Okay. I'm so sorry that I have neglected to stay on top of this blog, but tonight's the night. Things have been extremely chaotic in my life and though I've not been making this blog a top priority (mostly because I have not had any time to get to it), I have however managed to keep up with the photos the last few weeks.

Therefore, there won't be too much detail in the last two weeks worth of The China Diet portion of my blog series, but you will get to see all the yummy things I made!

I must say, The China Diet, perhaps even more so than The Mexico Diet, shockingly, has been to date, the most fattening of all the foods I've been eating this year. Which really does surprise me. Perhaps it was all the soy sauce? Or all the rice? Or maybe the wine...

No, no. It couldn't be the wine.

To be honest, I think it was all the mozzarella cheese I ate. I really did eat too much of that, because I love it so much. That's my theory anyway.

Nevertheless, though this may have been the most fattening of all the diets I've been on, it was probably my favorite one that I did - taste wise. Delicious recipes I came up with, filling and though fattening, certainly not unhealthy by any means.

So let's get to week 3 of The China Diet!

Monday, I stayed home from work and had a nice little breakfast. Scrambled eggs, a piece of fresh mozzarella and some fruit salad accompanied with my coveted milk with coffee - eh-hem, I mean coffee with milk.

Lunch was pretty simple. More fresh mozzarella with pine nuts and some grapes...

But then I got really hungry later, and had some of the left over chicken from the day before with rice and green onion...undoubtedly some garlic and soy sauce was thrown in there as well. And don't forget salt and pepper...

Dinner was fantastic. The best dish yet on the diet, and I must say it's one I'll be making again in the future for sure.

Sauteed bok choy, garlic, and green onions in sesame seed oil and soy sauce, with steak, pine nuts and jasmine rice. Green onion on top for garnish.  Salt and pepper to taste. Absolutely incredible!

The next day I had made oatmeal cookies the night before to have for breakfast, which turned out great, and there was no need for flour or even vanilla extract.

Lunch was some baked chicken breast made with mushrooms and mozzarella cheese and butter...

Dinner was the leftovers from the evening before...

Wednesday morning I had plain yogurt with fresh blueberries for breakfast.

Followed by more of the same chicken from the day before...

Dinner was essentially the same thing I'd made two nights prior, but this time it was prepared with ground chicken breast. Let me assure you, I will not be making that again. It wasn't horrible but it did not compare to the steak version by any means.

The next morning I made some lemon blueberry muffins for breakfast, and shared them with my staff at work. They were amazing, if I do say so myself...

Lunch was the remainder of the chicken breast stuffed with mushrooms and cheese...

And dinner was leftovers from the night before...

Friday, I had some scrambled eggs with cheese and mushrooms...

And that afternoon, while on my lunch break, I met with a new friend at Starbuck's and did cheat on a day that was not regularly scheduled cheat day. As I've said before, I allow myself one day a week, the week before my regularly planned cheat day, if I am really dying for something but only one thing. I couldn't resist her invitation, and because it was too late in the day by then for me to drink any caffeine, I chose something I love - their strawberry frappuccino!  To be fair, it was a small...

For lunch, later that day, I had some fresh mozzarella with pine nuts and almonds...and I must say, almonds are not my bag, baby.

Fridays are usually pretty hectic for me after work because I go grocery shopping. As I don't get out of work until 6 pm or even after sometimes, and it takes me roughly 40 minutes to get to the grocery store from there, by the time I'm finished, I don't get home until around 8 pm. By the time I put all the groceries away, clean up the kitchen and anything else that needs tidying up it's just too late to start cooking. Not only do I not have the energy to cook anything, I'm usually not even all that hungry by that time. So I try to keep it simple.

Therefore, I did something in Italian fashion that I'd been wanting to do, and so glad I did! A take on appertivo hour from Italia - salami, which was 100% all beef, fresh mozzarella and some pine nuts with grapes and wine.

I love the name of the salami too, 'Holy Cow!'

The next day, Saturday, I had a very small and simple portion of scrambled eggs with nothing added to them.

I literally have no clue what I had for lunch that day, because I neglected to take a picture.

However, dinner I did record. This was delicious as usual, but still not as good as the steak dish. That will go down in history as one of the best recipes I've ever come up with. But for dinner Saturday evening, I had ground beef mixed with butter, mushrooms, onions and sushi rice...

Sunday I skipped breakfast, and was starving by the time I got home from church. I made my own version of a somewhat "healthy" fried chicken. Instead of canola or vegetable oil, I used 100% organic grape seed oil, and instead of flour for the coating, I used eggs, and oats. I also soaked the chicken in buttermilk with salt and pepper prior to actually frying it...

Served with white sushi rice on the side, it was honestly a very light dish compared to the typical fried chicken you might regularly have - and as an added bonus it was honestly delicious.

Dinner was a lamb chop cooked in beer. Yes, beer. And again, fabulously tasty...

Stay tuned for Week 4 which is coming in just a little bit...!

"For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that." - 1 Timothy 6:7-8